Editorial: Governor must stop playing us for suckers

Wednesday

Mar 25, 2009 at 12:01 AMMar 25, 2009 at 2:10 AM

Gov. Deval Patrick’s recent actions have so damaged his standing that even legitimate reform efforts look like sleights of hand timed to distract us from a serial insensitivity to the principles of those who elected him. We deserve better.

Gov. Deval Patrick has lost sight of the very message of voter empowerment that swept him into office 26 months ago and needs to get back on track.

His recent words and actions have so damaged his standing that even legitimate reform efforts look like sleights of hand timed to distract us from his serial insensitivity to the principles of those who elected him.

We deserve better.

The state faces a $1.1 billion budget deficit this year and $3.5 billion in anticipated spending cuts to start the next fiscal year. The governor says the situation is so dire we need to pay more taxes and expect less in services.

It is hard enough that this message comes amid record unemployment and foreclosure rates. It’s harder still when it comes amid news the governor is using taxpayers’ money to line the pockets of friends and supporters and then scoffing when criticized for it.

Raises and do-nothing jobs may be a common way of doing business on Beacon Hill but they’re toxic assets in our book. And they should be toxic in the governor’s book as well.

After all, he promised not to play these games.

Patrick says he is focused on long-term solutions and dismisses complaints about his recent spending as “trivial”. That’s wrong.

His approval rating has reached a record low of 28 percent and these mistakes threaten to rob him of the political capital he needs to affect change. What the govern seems to have forgotten is that as much as we want a solid manager to guide us through this crisis, we need an inspired leader.

And there’s nothing inspirational about feeling like the person you’ve chosen to guard your money and interests puts patronage before principles; that the candidate who lifted an electorate on symbols now appears blind to their significance; or that someone who appeared to connect with the common man can’t cope with anything less than a Cadillac.

The governor campaigned on hope and inspiration and vowed to resist the trappings of power. But less than a month after taking office he created a $72,000-a-year job for the co-chairman of his election campaign.

Early indications that he was out of touch with voters who supported his grassroots campaign might have been dismissed as the mistakes of a neophyte settling into his first elected office. But this pattern of tone-deaf politics is like a recurring rash and it needs immediate attention.

Whether it’s his own inability to recognize why it’s wrong or a problem with those advising him, change must come.

We cannot afford for the governor to fail at our greatest hour of need.

“We didn’t build up this grassroots just to win an election,” Patrick said on Election Night in 2006. “We built up the grassroots to govern in a whole new way, to make change real, and lasting, and meaningful.”

It is imperative he acknowledge the damage his recent actions have done to that ideal and commit to changes in both attitude and conduct that shows he not only knows what it means to be a governor but also what is required to be a leader.

The Patriot Ledger

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